Hmm interesting I like the concept, but it definitely needs some cleanup.

The second line about hazmat suits is redundant.

Testing has determined the jar to be completely normal

to be "absent of any anomalous effects"

The unknown substance's composition has not been determined, but appears to consist mostly of a collection of enzymes, many previously undiscovered.

The unknown substance's composition consists mostly of a collection of enzymes, many previously undiscovered.

I'm not sure the terms foodstuff and taste are very scientific terms, but I'm not sure what to replace them with.

Take out the mention of the possibility of an outbreak. It would be so dilluted upon entering the sewage system that unless you are talking about one molecule having this effect there is no danger.

You need a more interesting recovery story and far more interesting tests. Use more interesting foods than instant noodles. As far as the recovery story where was it found? Sounds like it was a bulk container, so who was the manufacturer?

I forgot to mention I think you need a couple more details dwelling on the effect on test subject. Perhaps mention what they describe the taste to be like. The main component of this is the loss of taste and smell so dwell on it a bit more to send the desired effect to your reader.

"gustation" is the scientific word for "taste", but I figured almost no-one will know this. I'll have to rewrite the outbreak part, I guess. It's supposed to be a genuine threat, as the implication is that the amount of 1266 in a person's body increases by itself, and as I mentioned, tiny amounts are supposed to be dangerous.

Otherwise, who really cares about some powder that makes stuff tasteless?

I'll have to think about recovery, then. As for tests… never been my forte. I welcome suggestions. Also, I didn't have more, as it would just be "we tried it with THIS FOOD. Oh look, it was tasteless too."

Also I really don't think you will be able to convince readers that this is a serious threat, but you are welcome to try and prove me wrong. Rather than an outbreak, try mentioning that the label gives a batch number which is traced to a recalled batch of several thousand cans. 500 or so are unaccounted for.

Otherwise, who really cares about some powder that makes stuff tasteless?

Would you want to lose your sense of taste and smell? Its a pretty scary thought to me.

EDIT-

we tried it with THIS FOOD. Oh look, it was tasteless too.

True true. Don't add any more tests. Your experiments are nice (like the use of acid), but instant noodles are kind of boring and pretty much tasteless anyways. Try something like Limburger cheese or other foods with very strong tastes or smells.

I didn't notice you had it set to Euclid. I would definitely set it to safe. You can easily trap this in a box with no negative effects.

Be sure to keep the interview short if you write one, but I was thinking more of a line or two like "Subjects have described the taste as "like licking a blackboard clean" and "sucking on chalk"" An interview if done right could be wonderful, but it runs the danger of adding unnecessary length.

Well it looks like the idea is pretty solid now. I do wonder about it being discovered through high suicide rates. I would think it would have been noticed through the high rate of people reporting a loss of taste and smell.

I would take it to the chat to clean up any grammar mistakes (I'm no help there :( ) and to get additional opinions.

I might have a look at chat, I've never used IRC before, but I guess I could give it a go.

Regarding the suicide rates, I figured the Foundation would be monitoring for such things, but is unlikely to be monitoring ALL medical records. Perhaps instead it could be a high rate of people dying of starvation? I could easily imagine people to whom all food tastes awful ending up starving to death.

I was thinking of the fact the large number of people reporting an unusual problem like loss of smell and taste would be more noticeable than the suicide rates. I doubt people would start offing themselves in large numbers purely from losing taste. I would think it would be more likely they would start complaining and do seek out any help to reverse the condition before killing themselves.

As far as IRC goes, its nice to run drafts through there as you can reach a different group of people than the ones that respond on the forums. New opinions are always good. I might like this, but perhaps no one else does. Good to know these things ahead of posting.